This invention relates to a packaging machine of the type in which a strip of interconnected, open-ended pouches is advanced edgewise along a predetermined path to a cutting station where successive pouches are periodically severed from the leading end portion of the strip. The pouch strip usually is defined by a pair of face-to-face panels made of flexible material and sealed together by longitudinally spaced and vertically extending heat seals which terminate short of the upper edges of the panels. Severing of the pouches from the strip is effected by a cutter having a pair of coacting blades disposed on opposite sides of the strip and operable to cut through the heat seals.
To facilitate handling of the pouches after cut-off, it is desirable to keep the upper edge portions of the panels of the strip separated from one another before, during and after the time the pouches are severed from the strip. Such separation typically is achieved through the use of an elongated splitter bar which projects downwardly between the upper edge portions of the panels. With prior machines, it has been necessary either to completely interrupt the splitter bar at the cutting station or to provide some type of movable splitter at the cutting station in order to avoid interference between the splitter and the cutting blades when the blades cut through the pouch strip. A packaging machine with an interrupted splitter is disclosed in Bartelt U.S. Pat. No. 2,649,673. Machines with movable splitters are disclosed in Harker U.S. Pat. No. 2,673,431 and Nutting et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,230,687.
The invention has more particular reference to a packaging machine in which the pouch strip is advanced with continuous motion rather than with intermittent or start-stop motion. In such a machine, cutting of the pouches takes place while the strip is moving and thus it is necessary for the cutter to operate in a continuous manner so that the blades will not interfere with the advance of the strip when the blades cut through the strip. The aforementioned Nutting et al patent discloses a packaging machine having a continuous motion cutter.